Monday, July 8, 2013

It has been a long, long time since I last wrote something in my blog. Many factors contributed to this lack of communication. Force of Fate - Letters to Oma was released in EBook format on Amazon. Additional work continued on the book to have it released in Paperback format. I was introduced to the Google+ Hangout concept. Not being known for ever turning down a challenge, I created my own Hangout show: SlushHeap . I invited my ghostwriter Darcie Duranceau to join me and present a show dedicated to new, would be authors. I envisioned this show to eliminate the hassle I faced trying to publish my own book without any prior knowledge of the industry.

We created a 'Brand'. A commodity that perhaps some day will be recognized for what it is designed for. We designed a logo that is unique in its concept but still represented the ideas and purposes of the show. Our slogan is simple and to the point: "Come to us at SlushHeap and stay out of the slushpile".
Our members on the Cast & Crew has grown and I hope will continue to do so as we create a better show each week. Darcie and I are the co-hosts who introduce and interview our guests with the kind of questions that our audience can take away and use in their endeavor of creating their master piece.
Matt Frost is our technical guru, our IT man, so to speak. He makes sure before that show that all visual and audio devices used by us and our guests are functioning properly. And of course he keeps us on track by constantly checking our time consumed and remaining. Since Week 1 we also have added two "Friends of the Show" to our cast. Jim Ault, a software expert, has been a tremendous asset to us in pointing us in the directions that will result in a larger audience by being exposed to the important social media outlets. Although Jim is not an author he has been very helpful when we are understaffed by stepping in and asking the right questions. Our latest addition is John Rakestraw. John is not new to social media. He has hosted a number of shows including his 'Live Events!' show, a Radio-Talk-Show and of course his greatest achievement, John along with his wife Toni, operate Rakestraw Book Design. John is my "Cosmos Brother" One night during our show, John made the statement that he is not an author, he is a 'Teller of Stories'. This has been my line as long as I can remember my short life on this planet. Bonding with someone just because of a mere few words was awesome.
But our show is not based on men and women who create the show, but rather on great men and women who have done what most humans are incapable of. Taking the words and putting them on paper to serve as inspiration. entertainment, healing, laughter and uplifting to the masses. I admit that the first week was the hardest. At best we were rookies in a Beta Format on the internet. We delayed our opening show week after week and practiced more and more each day. I'm not sure who finally pulled the emergency brake on our run-a -way train but it came to a stop and we were forced to stop pretending and get a show on the air.
Our first live show, our first attempt at live dialog in front of an audience that could not be seen by us. Perhaps we had thousands watch us, perhaps only one - or none. So many concerns that nerves were on edge. We scrambled all week to get a guest that would fit our subject matter. Being green and a rookie I was no help. We finally landed a guest and Tuesday, 7PM rolled around. Karen Moulder was our perfect first guest. We were stepping into a part of the new internet that contained some great names and she did the same in her quest for employment. She became the first female firefighter in Texas. We knew right away why she was successful. She was gutsy, afraid of nothing, not embarrassed very easily and stood up to anyone in her way. My inauguration into the world of talk-shows was a enlightening experience.
As each week came and went we added more and more names to our wall of fame. There were those who were authors such as Kathryn Chastain Treat, a first time author, who has not missed an episode and became our roll model of would-be-authors who would allow us to judge our success or failure of the material we presented.

Week after week the show got more exiting. Our name was out there and more and more people accepted our invitation. We hosted the likes of: Mimi Luk, Win Charles, Alana Terry, Jim Niedermeier, Daniel Benz, Aaron Wood, JS Mathew, Raymond Benson, Katie Hayoz, Melissa Wyllie, Amy Netzger, Johannes Froebel-Parker, Joey Pinkeye, Slash Coleman, Jason Matthews, Corel Basil, Marla Miller and Sonia Marsh. And the list is not done. This week we will host show #11 - Audio Books with guests Caley Rose and Dai Karnberg. From all indications this should be a very lively show. I hope all of you, my friends, will stop by and watch an episode and most of all give us feedback. Without communication we cannot bring the Right Stuff to you and improve our show.

I promise I will post more often. I have so much more to share with you, including the long awaited second chapter of my life and the fate awaiting me.

About Me

From the time of my childhood with my Oma, it has been
instilled in me that Fate or Destiny was to be my guiding light my entire life.
To further cement this believe into my soul, some years ago a friend recruited
me to aid him in a project he was working on. It was not the object of this
project that fascinated me as much as the little booklet he printed and packed
with the object. In short, the title of the booklet was ‘The pyramidal threat
of life’. It was his believe that each of us was a threat in the tapestry of
life. We, the threat , were pulled off some huge spool and inserted into the
weaving machine. From that moment on we would cross paths with many other
threats. We, as a threat, would break and be repaired to continue on our way.
At some point another threat would intersect hours and we would be knotted
together to continue our joint venture. We had tight the knot. Unfortunately
all threats end at some point and we are left behind, perhaps forgotten, or we
could have made an impressive statement with our threat that we would go down
in history.

There was something missing to me. I searched for some time
and finally realized that to little emphasis was placed on the ‘spool of
threat’ we came from. This spool used to contain the threats of our ancestors,
who, through the makeup of the material of the threat had left us with their
character and hence the threat that still remained on the spool was that of my
future generations who would inherit the trades of my ancestors and those I
would pass unto them

So no matter what I did or didn’t do, my legacy will always
be a part of my tapestry of life. Whether anyone would see it and interpret it
cannot be said for certain. No matter, we are all there for history, preserved
forever .This book, placed in the darkest corner of a library, covered with
spider webs will still bear witness to the deeds a few did for the many.